Road to Haruma

On the way to the New Dawn school, this is typical of what you see in the neighborhood leading up to the Haruma slum. Huge estates walled off from each other.



On the boundary road between the neighborhood above and the Haruma slum. Estates to the left. Shanty sheds to the right.






Woman selling her produce directly across the road from the walled estates.



View of the Haruma slum from the balcony of the new addition of New Dawn. The school is an oasis in the midst of incredible poverty and hopelessness.


Here is Erin greeting the slum children who come out as soon as we park the van.


One of these little girls was carrying her baby brother on her back.





One of the goals of New Dawn is to become fully sustainable. They have a huge Kale garden, three cows, and a large greenhouse for raising tomatoes and peppers. What they don't use to feed the students, they sell.





I got to be friends with Minah the caretaker who was chopping grasses to feed the cows. The assistant cook was wearing an apron that caught my eye...it was an apron from our Art Camp days at church! Miriam had given it to her!






These round black plastic structures in the foreground are pod container gardens that grow vegetables out the sides and can sustain a family of eight. We watched several being built around the grounds of New Dawn. This garden project was begun last year through Kizimani.

The new addition is incredible. It is three stories high ( that is three used shipping containers high) which now house a faculty space, all school meeting space, library, biology lab, chem and physics lab, computer lab, and a media room where Hans held his Bible teaching seminars with the faculty (complete with white board!) our first few days there the students were busily getting ready for the dedication ceremony for the annex, so in the midst of my teaching art, there was a beehive of activity: moving furniture, putting books on the library shelves, carpenters using skill saws right outside my classroom, electricians finishing wiring, painters painting, etc.



Science lab above, computer lab below awaiting computers to be installed.



Library books all put away.




Media room all set up for Hans and his teaching!



Hans also had the opportunity to represent Kizimani at the dedication ceremony for the addition and he even gave an address. It was an incredible experience and truly the highlight of the trip for him.